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A few thoughts this week: 1) God is great and provides! and 2) Every cake brings its own mini-disaster.

For the first point: As stated a few times previously, I’m planning a wedding. Not sure if you all know this or not, but weddings are expensive. Thankfully, I’ve been praying for more business for Little Bit Sweet to help compensate for the extra expense of paying for wedding stuff. I know, I know, there are far bigger things to pray for. But business has picked up tremendously and I’m very thankful for that. So many more cake posts to come!

Can we take a minute and remember the avocado banana bread fiasco?…. ok moving on.

But I’ll soon be posting a few other funny stories. They’re funny now that I look back on them. At the time, not so much.

For this cake, the disaster came in the fact that the balloon (rice krispie treat and fondant) was too heavy for the “string” holding it up. After a lot of trial and error, I found the solution in a bundle of twisted twisty ties. Whew! Crisis averted.

Anywho, more posts to come with a variety of cakes: birthday cakes, baby shower cake, etc…

Also come on back for more baking blunders. Fun!

For now, I present to you an elephant baby shower cake! 1-2-3…awwwwww!

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One of my favorite things about cake decorating is that each and every cake means a new challenge of some sort.

And I like challenges. Well, sort of. This week I’ve also challenged myself to something new: no desserts.

Funny thing is that when I told my coworkers (fellow dietitians), the result was confused looks and questions of “why??” Most of us LOVE dessert, though partake responsibly. As a matter of fact, I tend to keep chocolate at my desk in case of bad days. Consider it more of a medicine. I figure it’s better than insanity.

But after all of these cake orders, I’d OD’ed on cake and frosting. My body wanted to work out and eat fewer sweets. Note: my mind did NOT love this idea. But I figured I would challenge myself. Just a few days of dessert-free living. Can’t be that hard, right? W-R-O-N-G!

Three days later (and one bad day yesterday), and I’m proud to have proved to myself that I can do it!! And now that I’ve proved it to myself, I have 2 more days and I’ll be having chocolate something-or-other. You know, to celebrate my not eating chocolate. Makes total sense…promise.

Another challenge I conquered not too long ago: a Minecraft cake.

Apparently Minecraft is kind of a big deal. Childless like me and have no idea what it is? Fear not. According to the super simplified description on their website, it’s a pixelated world in which players break and place blocks. Obviously there is more to it than that. But it’s pretty cute! And what a great challenge to make this cake. Not your typical birthday cake, which I love, and it brought a huge smile to the birthday boy’s face, which I also love. Here is the final product. Ignore the bad lighting. These were taken very late at night, so the “natural light” was not so good.

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Little Bit Sweet business has picked up quite a bit! (Thank goodness, because it’s helping this artist pay for her own wedding cake.) Which means I’ve been doing a lot of baking and not so much posting. I’ve vowed many times to get better, but let’s be honest here….it’s not happening. 😉

As a matter of fact, this blog will turn into more of a “life and times” blog with a focus on Little Bit Sweet creations and the occasional recipe post.

So today I’m posting a cake made for a dear friend’s wedding from June 14th.

Bridal Cake Display

Here’s the story: The bride and I were in high school band together. (Insert jokes about band nerds here, but really our high school didn’t conform to the standard stereotypes.) Anyhow, it was a huge honor for her to ask that I make their wedding cake, and she had a beautiful inspiration cake to recreate. Another challenge for this order: a Seattle Seahawks grooms’ cake. Fun!

The wedding was back home (2.5 hours from where I currently live) so it was a bit of a delivery. Which always turns into a fiasco for whatever reason. This time, the bridal cake made it just fine. Whew! The grooms cake decided to get a little crazy. About 40 minutes into the drive, the Seahawk decided to slowly jiggle off of its cake board. My fault for not putting icing underneath it to secure it down… rookie mistake! So for the next couple of hours, I cringed with every bump in the road and keep looking in my rear view to make sure it wasn’t falling apart. As if I could do something about it if it had. Luckily, it made it just fine…ish. The fallen cupcakes were easily jiggled back onto the board and another smooth out with a Viva towel covered all of the evidence. 🙂

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So you know how time kind of gets away from you when you have back-to-back tasks and it seems like there aren’t enough hours in the day? Yep, that’s been my life lately. I know I’m really bad about saying that I’ll post more often, but it just hasn’t happened lately.

Anyways, a few weeks ago, I got to celebrate the wedding of my future sister-in-law and her now husband! Yay! And I was honored to be a part of their day by making their wedding cake.

The day proved to be quite the adventure. Originally an outdoor wedding, the entire ceremony and reception had to be moved to another location when west Texas decided it wanted to become a wetland. In 2-3 hours, one ceremony and reception area was moved 30miles to an indoor location. But it was gorgeous!! And such a testament to what great friends and family they have beside them. 🙂

This was a carrot cake, and is one of my favorite flavors!!!

Funny story: I start to make this cake with the email my mom sent to me, and noticed it didn’t have any fat in it. None. No butter, no oil, no replacement. Thinking this was strange (because usually carrot cake has LOTS of fat), I called and asked my mom to clarify. She said she thought she’d sent the recipe as is, but would check. An hour later, I get a call….there’s supposed to be a cup and a half of oil per batch!!! Mom said, “Dang that wouldn’t have been good!”

Talk about a sabotage! But it turned out great! …even if I used a little less than called for because 1.5 cups of oil pained the dietitian side of me. Even if it was canola oil, that is an insane amount of fat. But hey, the batch makes quite a bit and it was a very special occasion.

I wonder, if oil floats on water, could we have used the cake as a floatation device in the torrential downpour?? Hmm…

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Mother’s day and Father’s day have always been special holidays for me. After all, I’m celebrating the two people who (with God) brought me into this world. And I have amazing parents.

So, in honor of (belated) Mother’s day, here’s to my mom! An amazing woman who cares so much for her girls and grand-girls, her parents, sisters, and everyone else in her life. Who worries a lot about us because she wants for everything to be right in our lives. Who is truly one of my best friends and someone I can go to with anything and everything. The person I call for advice in life, financial tips because I have NO idea what all of the technical financial terms mean, to share happy moments, and to calm me down when I feel like my world is falling apart. Yes, I have my fiancee to do many of these things as well, but there’s just nothing like a mom’s advice. After all, she’s seen me grow up, helped me pick up the pieces after my mistakes, and griped at me to clean my room more times than I can count. (I thank her for this now because my apartment is typically very tidy.)

Another great thing about my mom is she’s always there to help in any way she can. She’s saved me from many cake disasters and helped with a bunch of deliveries. Fixed the cage of my UFC cake when the sun melted it. And drove 2 hours after work on a Friday to help me finish 300 cake balls for a friends’ wedding favors. All because she knew that, despite my claims, I couldn’t handle it alone.

So here’s to you, mom. A truly amazing woman and even better mom!

Also for Mother’s day, a friend ordered these cake balls from Little Bit Sweet for her mom. I’m rather pleased with them! Strawberry cake balls with white chocolate coating. Yummy!

I’m engaged!!!! I don’t typically talk about my personal life on this blog, but this deserves a special announcement and shout-out to my wonderful (now) fiancee. 🙂

Funny thing is, the first question that almost every person has asked me is “are you going to make your own wedding cake??”

They laughed, but I’m considering it. Though it would be nice to eat a cake I had no part in baking. And the stress may not be worth it.

Anyways, now that that big news is out it’s time for today’s post.

It’s spring time and I’m getting tired of the same old cupcakes. Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, plain, plain, plain…..

Time to switch it up! Or, rather, flip it upside down. Introducing pineapple upside down cupcakes!

Pineapple upside down cake was my grandpa Bart’s favorite dessert. I used to watch as my mom made it for him for his birthdays. It always seemed like such a tedious process and quite the gamble because you never knew if it would come out of the pan. Gooey mess stuck to the cake pan and then slopped onto the cake just wasn’t as appealing. And yet, she made it perfectly every time.

Yes, it’s even more of a gamble trying to get these little guys out of the cupcake pan. But it’s so worth it! A crowd pleaser AND I didn’t have to make buttercream frosting. (A process that, honestly, I hate doing.)

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

Makes 24 cupcakes

Cooking Spray

1/2 butter, melted

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, not packed

24 maraschino cheeries

1 (20 oz) can pineapple slices in juice

3 cups flour

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup canola oil

Juice from pineapple can + enough cold water to equal 2 cups

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 375 F. Spray cupcake tins with nonstick spray.

Spoon 1 scant teaspoon melted butter into the bottom of each cupcake cup.

Spoon 1 scant, unpacked tablespoon brown sugar into each cupcake cup.

Place a maraschino cherry in the middle of the brown sugar mix in each cupcake cup.

Drain pineapple juice into a measuring cup. Set aside. Place pineapple slices onto cutting board and cut each slice into 6 pieces. Place 3-4 pieces of pineapple around the cherry in each cupcake cup.

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.

Grab your measuring cup with pineapple juice and add cold water to equal a total of 2 cups liquid.

Pour cake batter into the cupcake cups, filling just to the top. Do not overfill!

Bake at 375 F for approximately 20 minutes, or until toothpick stuck into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.

Let cupcakes cool at least 5 minutes. Lay out a piece of wax paper on the counter and carefully flip cupcake pan onto wax paper to release the cupcakes. Tap on the bottom of the pan to help the process. For really stubborn cupcakes, may have to loosen a bit with a knife before inverting.

I haven’t calculated nutrition info for this recipe. It’s a “sometimes” food. 😉

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